Extended Spring Training Rosters

So here’s my totally unofficial guess at who’s still in Clearwater. Some of these guys are leftovers from the Spring Training Workgroups and may have been released and a couple are guys who were in the system at the end of last season but did not appear during Spring Training, so who knows if they’re still in the system. Obviously some of these guys will end up in Williamsport, some in Gulf Coast and some back in the DSL or VSL.

But for a lot of these guys it will last until the short-season leagues start up in June (I believe it’s June 18th for the Williamsport Crosscutters and GCL Phillies).

Then some of the latin-american players will likely return to the Dominican and Venezuelan Summer Leagues which begin in early June. Gotta wonder how much time left the VSL has since only 5 MLB teams(one of which is the Phillies) still field a team in it.

My tongue-in-cheek comment about as long as the Phillies want isn’t entirely a joke as some of these players may be recovering from injuries so rather than have them start plaing in July or Aug they will just have them work-out/practice and then play simulated games in the fall instructional league.

I hope the Phillies do not give up their Ven academy. Understand MLB teams are enamored wth the DR prospects, but have to wonder why, other then for financial reasons, 25 or so MLB teams foresake Venezuela.

It also might be giving us an advantage in terms of signing prospects – at least the second tier. Everyone goes after the high dollar signings but having a complex in the country has got to be an advantage with the $100K prospects.

Try political reasons. The country is unstable and has proven dangerous for catchers (Ramos, Torrealba). That is my guess. The clubs feel it is not a good investment. There are some great players from Venezuela and Colombia. It is a shame not to take advantage of the resource. I’m glad the Phillies are sticking with it. I wonder how long they can.

Did not find them, or any of the others on this list. In fact, Smith was mentioned as returning from the DL and no mention of subsequent release, so maybe these guys are still around, but I doubt it. I don’t recall seeing their names on any of the workout groups, so maybe I scratched them off for that reason.

Yeah, he was restricted, and usually when a player in the minors becomes restricted like that it is because they took off, left, without bothering to retire or such. And then they are designated Restricted , so as they don’t find a back door path to Unrestricted Free Agent status. I believe if somebody conducted a search at Extended Spring Training, I still don’t think you will find Jeffrey Cusick as a participant. But, who knows?

I have 33 , so, yeah, a Short Season team is required to have 15 pitchers (GCL) and maybe the same in WPT, for the 35 and 30 roster limits, so I expect some Latin American pitchers will return to the VSL and DSL once those seasons begin. Shouldn’t be too long now for the VSL .